Facebook details plans for connectivity, AI, and social VR

Image: Erin Carson/TechRepublic On day two of F8, the Facebook developer conference, the company further detailed inroads it’s been making in the areas of connectivity, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. There were no announcements, but rather more information on these key areas that CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg identified as being crucial to Facebook’s 10-year plan. Connectivity Jay Parikh, vice president of engineering at Facebook, discussed how the company plans to bring connectivity to urban areas, suburbs, and remote parts of the world. “We’re looking for gains in tech that are going to make 10X faster, 10X cheaper, or both,” he said. For rural parts of the world, like countries in southern Africa, Parikh talked a bit more about Aquila, Facebook’s v-shaped, solar-powered, unmanned plane that could fly uninterrupted for…